Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-2jptb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T06:11:31.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tidal flows around the Channel Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. D. Pingree  and
G. T. Mardell
R. D. Pingree
Affiliation:
N.E.R.C. Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Brook Road, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5UB
G. T. Mardell
Affiliation:
N.E.R.C. Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Brook Road, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5UB
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The tidal streams in the Channel Islands region are rotary anticlockwise. At spring tides anticlockwise Eulerian residual currents of about 20 cm s–1 develop around Guernsey which indicate that frictional effects exceed those due to the Earth's rotation in the generation of Eulerian residual currents in this shallow-water situation. Lagrangian anticlockwise residual currents can exceed 60 cm s–1 at spring tides, indicating that Stokes-induced currents are larger than the Eulerian residual currents around Guernsey. Remote sensing studies show anticlockwise-directed jets which also indicate an anti-clockwise circulation around the island. A tidal circulation pattern for the Channel Islands area is presented based on anticlockwise gyres around all the major topographic features in the region. This pattern off low is consistent with the formation of the well-known front between Guernsey and Jersey and the residual currents derived from a numerical model.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , November 1987 , pp. 691 - 707
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cartwright, D. E., 1961. A study of currents in the Strait of Dover. Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 14, 130–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, L. M. N., 1966. English Channel. Physical oceanography. In Encyclopedia of Oceanography (ed. Fairbridge, R. W.), pp. 260–261. New York: Reinhold.Google Scholar
Dietrich, G., 1950. Die anomale Jahresschwankung des Wärmeinhalts in Englischen Kanal, ihre Ursachen und Auswirkungen. Deutsche hydrographische Zeitschrift, 3, 184–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, A. J. & Ramster, J. W., 1979. Atlas of the seas around the British Isles. Technical Report of the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft, no. 20, 28 pp.Google Scholar
Longuet-Higgins, M. S., 1969. On the transport of mass by time varying currents. Deep-Sea Research, 16, 431–447.Google Scholar
Longuet-Higgins, M. S., 1970. Steady currents induced by oscillations round islands. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 42, 701–720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patzert, W. C. & Wyrtki, K., 1974. Anticyclonic flow around the Hawaiian Islands indicated by current meter data. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 4, 673–676.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R. D., Forster, G. R. & Morrison, G. K., 1974. Turbulent convergent tidal fronts. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 54, 469–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Griffiths, D. K., 1977. The bottom mixed layer on the continental shelf. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science, 5, 399–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Griffiths, D. K., 1980. Currents driven by a steady uniform wind stress on the shelf seas around the British Isles. Oceanologica acta, 3, 227–236.Google Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Maddock, L., 1985 a. Stokes, Euler and Lagrange aspects of residual tidal transports in the English Channel and the Southern Bight of the North Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 65, 969–982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Maddock, L., 1985 b. Rotary currents and residual circulation around banks and islands. Deep-Sea Research, 32, 929–947.Google Scholar
Pingree, R. D. & Mardell, G. T., 1986. Coastal tidal jets and tidal fringe development around the Isles of Scilly. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 23, 581–594.Google Scholar
Pingree, R. D., Mardell, G. T. & Maddock, L., 1985. Tidal mixing in the Channel Isles region derived from the results of remote sensing and measurements at sea. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 20, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stommel, H., 1954. Serial observations of drift currents in the central North Atlantic Ocean. Tellus, 6, 203–214.Google Scholar